Resource & Lifestyle Academy, West Nottinghamshire College

Proteus CX porcelain ceramic panels in three colours – light and dark grey and sand – and red Proteus HR panels rainscreen the £11million Lifestyle Academy at Vision West Nottinghamshire College, the centrepiece of the college’s ongoing £40million investment in its estate and facilities across Mansfield and Ashfield.

The state-of-the-art, abstract-shaped building on the college’s Derby Road campus is training the next generation of hairstylists, beauticians, holistic therapists, chefs and hospitality professionals with 4,000m2 of teaching and learning space set over three floors. This includes hair and beauty salons, nail bar, spa and fine-dining restaurant, all of which are open to the public to give students real-life industry experience.

The building won the infrastructure category in regional design awards held by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) which recognises outstanding achievement by a project or programme of infrastructure works including those that deliver essential facilities or services.

Judges described the building as a “living piece of social infrastructure” and praised the college for what can be achieved by the “thoughtful addition of buildings”.

Tom Stevens, the college’s executive director of capital projects and estates, said: “It was designed especially to ensure students on vocational programmes learn in the most realistic working environment possible while equipping learners on academic courses with all the modern resources they expect from a 21st Century college.”

Mr Simpson, IBI Taylor Young’s studio principal, said: “The building provides significant educational infrastructure and architectural impact, acting as a key gateway for the college and Mansfield as a whole. It is having a hugely positive effect on the learning experience of thousands of students, which is exactly what we set out to achieve when designing the facility.”